


They Assume You Know Nothing

by skylinesunflowers



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Pepper Potts, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, POV Pepper Potts, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Slight Scott and Wanda Redemption, not a fix it but also a fix it, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29784300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylinesunflowers/pseuds/skylinesunflowers
Summary: Pepper waits a week before she rains hell down upon them.
Relationships: Pepper Potts & Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 342





	They Assume You Know Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> This did not go the way I planned.

As the CEO of one of the biggest ex-defense contractors for the US military, Pepper has something of a sway in politics. If she comes out and says something, people talk about it.

Maybe not in the same way as they would for Romney or Palin, but the sentiment stands.

She prefers to stay out of the spotlight and let Tony handle these things. Technically, Stark Industries and Iron Man are two different things. The reality is a bit more complicated.

This time is different. This time, Tony comes home unconscious, in a disabled suit, and Rhodey might never walk again.

This time, she’s out for blood.

She and Happy are staples of Helen Cho’s healing facility for the next two days. On the third, she tells Friday she wants to see the footage.

The two of them see it all, from the staticky suit cam in Siberia to the car crash, enhanced by Friday because it’s terrible quality. The tremble of Happy’s hands doesn’t go unnoticed.

Then, she goes over it another time, sitting next to a still-unconscious Tony’s bedside while Happy checks in on Rhodey.

Pepper cannot mess this up. She gets one shot. This is it.

She checks out the files on every single one of those so-called heroes that she catches sight of in the Leipzig footage.

Most of it is prior knowledge. Barnes and Lang are new.

The world is scrambling to know where the Rogue Avengers, dubbed by a lucky late-night anchor on CNN, are hiding.

Pepper writes up a list of countries that don’t have extradition treaties with the U.S. on Friday night, the day before she’s set to give her press release.

The press corps are surprisingly respectful while she speaks, taking a whole second every time she pauses before clamoring for a question.

In the end, she takes three. One from a blonde girl with owlish glasses, one from a man in a plain suit who goes a little too far, and one from Christine Everhart herself.

She asks, “Where are the Rogue Avengers now?”

Pepper has no reply.

By the next morning, an anonymous email account she had Happy set up sends every relevant clip to a handful of reporters. By the afternoon, half of the world is calling for their arrest.

She doesn’t comment. It’s no longer her problem.

Instead, Pepper takes every amendment that Tony proposed to the Accords and fights for them tooth and nail. She shows up as his proxy, glaring daggers at the Secretary of State, and does her best to whip votes.

A week later, she receives a message through Friday from a burner phone. It’s Lang. He wants to sign the Accords.

She looks over the tapes again before taking it to the Accords council. Her work with them is public now, and she wants to make sure she isn’t rooting for someone who’s going to hurt any one of them again.

To be honest, Pepper isn’t convinced of him till Hope Van Dyne, a board member of the company that renounced any affiliation with Lang, steps up to be his character witness.

She meets him once, when he’s being brought back in handcuffs, Pym tech under the protection of Van Dyne. He seems like an overgrown puppy of a man.

“Thank you,” he tells her sincerely, and she inclines her head coldly as she clicks past him.

The next day, when she’s going over a briefing from the Accords committee, Tony coughs and wakes up.

That’s the first time in a long time Pepper allows herself to cry.

Once he’s sitting up and asking for a cheeseburger, she tells him everything. His face goes stony and it seems like he might shut down.

But when he starts making bad jokes, straight out of a cheap sitcom, Pepper interjects.

“I don’t regret it,” she says firmly, even though her eyes are red. “They had to know.”

They might not be together, but Pepper will be damned if she lets the world crucify him without knowing the whole story.

He reads the news on a tablet she brought for him, but when he starts slumping down into his pillows, Pepper takes it back and says she’ll come visit him when he wakes up again.

Then, she gets an urgent call to an Accords committee meeting. Because if Lang gets a pardon, then the witch wants one too.

Pepper fights as hard as she can, but in the end, it’s no use. As Ross puts it, if she’s not on their side, then she’s against them. The U.S. can’t afford her against them.

She doesn’t bring up the RAFT to blackmail him. At least he included a clause that required Maximoff pick a magic instructor to train with. And they gave her a long list.

Happy calls her when Tony wakes up again, and he catches her by the elbow in the lobby. “Did you know they were going to offer her a pardon?”

“No,” she says, gathering her folder closer. “And you can’t tell Tony.”

He balks a little at first, but agrees before the elevator dings. Tony’s just recovering from having a vibranium shield shoved into his chest. He doesn’t need the extra stress.

She sighs when she sees Tony sitting up in bed, hologram schematics pulled up in front of him.

“Can’t you take a break?” she asks. In the corner, a Fox News anchor discusses Lang’s pardon.

“The future won’t wait for me,” Tony replies. It’s just as profound and infuriating as every. She’s glad to have him back.

Pepper isn’t planning to tell him about Maximoff anytime soon. Rhodey’s still in recovery from the fourth of many surgeries. But, one day, MSNBC is on, and she’s giving her public apology.

Yeah. A public apology is a stipulation of both pardons. And Maximoff declined one written by PR. Pepper looks forward to seeing this crash and burn.

But that’s not the way it goes. Instead, she stands looking contrite. Pepper expected it of Lang. Not of her.

Then she _apologizes_. Takes responsibility for everything she’s done, back to words Pepper didn’t know were spoken in Sokovia. And offers Tony a personal apology, even though that part’s not required.

He stares at the screen, tight-lipped. She can see the wheels turning inside his brain. Always thinking one step ahead.

“What are you gonna do?” she asks when it’s over.

“You know, I’m not sure yet,” he says, watching Maximoff answer questions idly. “I guess we’ll see.”

Then, Rhodey wakes up, and the four of them pay the Rogue Avengers no more attention.

It’s weeks later, after both Tony and Rhodey are discharged, and Tony’s down in his lab working nonstop on leg braces, that the Accords council (yeah, they’re a council now) reaches out to one of them again.

They gently suggest that Tony should reopen the Compound to the Avengers. Because Pepper declared every one of them a _persona non grata_ the minute she could.

She’s not privy to the discussion, but Rhodey was in the room. He makes it sound like Tony ripped the messenger a new one. Pepper’s satisfied with his report.

She’s also satisfied with the way Tony’s handling things. He retires from the Avengers and backs the Accords, all in the same press release. He’s going back to being a lone wolf (if at all).

Then, Pepper gets a message from the new king of Wakanda. He plans to sign the Accords. And guess where the Rogue Avengers are being held?

She releases the information to the Accords council without a second thought.

Happy makes popcorn the night Wilson, Barton, Romanoff, Barnes, and Rogers are arrested. For the first time in a long time, Tony relaxes.

The Rogues are not their problem anymore.


End file.
